#24 That’s trilling!

I am learning Spanish, which requires me to practice trilling (rolling my Rs). I started learning French when I was very young and, while I never progressed to any sort of useful level, it did teach me the French trill, which is the guttural back of the throat “rchhh” sound. The Spanish trill is rolled much further forward, at the alveolar ridge. I have been having some difficulty moving the trill forwards from the back of my throat to behind my teeth, with the result that my nacent Spanish is coming out with a slight French accent. To solve this problem I spent some time working through the various methods and drills in the Wikihow article ‘How to Roll Your “R”s‘. I found two pieces of advice most useful: one, that repeating the sounds “tee-dee-va” as rapidly as possible exercise the muscles of the tongue in the required manner; and, two, that trilling is easier if you make the sounds as loudly as possible. The net result? I am now wandering round my apartment repeatedly yelling what sounds like “titty bar” at the top of my lungs. No wonder the neighbours are staring…